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In a game that prioritized roster reconnaissance over home-field hunting, the Dodgers got more information than they bargained for.

With the Dodgers leading 3-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Brandon McCarthy entered for a relief tryout and faced six batters — all of whom scored — in a 9-3 loss to the Giants.

Though Washington lost to Miami tonight, the Dodgers remain two games behind the Nationals with two to play, meaning that unless Los Angeles sweeps and Washington gets swept Saturday and Sunday, the Dodgers will open the National League Division Series in the nation’s capital October 7.

Like Brett Anderson did on Thursday, Brandon McCarthy is expected to pitch out of the bullpen for the Dodgers when they open their season-ending series at San Francisco tonight.

The relief appearances by Anderson (2 1/3 innings, five hits, two strikeouts) and McCarthy keep alive the chances that either could be added to the Dodger playoff pitching staff.

“We wanted to get a different look from Brett, for him to come out of the pen — it’s something he’s really not accustomed to,” Dave Roberts said after Thursday’s game, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the Times. “His velocity was up. He was victim to some soft-contact hits, but his breaking ball was good. For Brett to come in … it was a positive outing for him.”

The Dodger playoff bullpen was already overflowing with candidates before Anderson and McCarthy slid from starter campaigns into the relief race, essentially trading with Julio Urías, who struck out five Thursday in three shutout innings of what appears to have been a tuneup to start Game 4 of the National League Division Series.

The Dodgers have announced their starting pitchers for the regular season’s remaining six games, and while it is (as always) subject to change, there are some interesting tea leaves to read.

Fresh off a recent conversation with Sandy Koufax (above), Julio Urías has been pegged to start Thursday for the Dodgers, following — in a switch — Kenta Maeda tonight and Jose De León on Wednesday.

With Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw and Maeda slated for the final series against the Giants, that means veterans Brett Anderson, Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy would appear to be all but out of consideration for the National League Division Series.

In their only appearances of the month, Anderson threw five innings September 22, Kazmir a single inning September 23 and McCarthy — most encouragingly — six innings of two-run ball September 25.

There’s never been any shortage of surprises with these Dodgers, but you’d be asking any of those pitchers to start on 2 1/2 weeks of rest, simulated innings aside. Game 4 of the NLDS would be played October 11.

Aside from the implications for finalizing the NLDS roster, the main question now is whether Urías, who has a 3.53 ERA this season but has thrown only two innings since September 13, is in a competition with De León to be positioned as No. 4 starter in the playoffs, or whether this is all a backup plan.

Based on Dodger playoff history from 2013-15, Clayton Kershaw would come back on three days’ rest to pitch in Game 4. His recovery from a disk herniation has mostly tabled that concept, but if Kershaw is feeling 100 percent, would you count him out?

Essentially, the Dodgers can start Kershaw in Game 4, turn to one of the rookies, or treat it as a glorified bullpen game, with Urías or De León combining with Ross Stripling to take the starter innings.

We’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?

Meanwhile, Hill pitching before Kershaw this weekend in San Francisco shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as a change in the pecking order. It’s far more likely to give Hill an extra day of rest before he takes the mound in the playoffs. By pitching Saturday, Kershaw would open the NLDS on five days’ rest, with Hill on seven days’ rest.

However, if you want to mull something off the wall, consider this: There are three days’ rest between NLDS Game 1 (October 7) and Game 4, but four days’ rest between NLDS Games 2 (October 8) and Game 5 (October 13). So if you wanted Kershaw to pitch on normal rest for two games, a Game 2 start would be the way to go. In that case, though, you’re guaranteeing the need for a fourth starter in the series.

Update: Dave Roberts confirmed tonight that it would be Kershaw, Hill and Maeda to begin the playoffs, in that order.

After going the life of the franchise without making the playoffs in three straight years until 2015, the Dodgers have extended their streak by one. Dave Roberts joined Tommy Lasorda as the only rookie managers ever to lead the Dodgers to a division title.

The victory sets up a National League Division Series matchup with the Washington Nationals, who clinched the NL East on Saturday. Game 1 of the NLDS will be October 7, with the Dodgers narrowly behind the Nationals in determining home-field advantage. The Dodgers own the tiebreaker if the teams finish with identical records.

In a season replete with resolve, the Dodgers rallied from two deficits — and won without leading until after the final pitch was thrown.

In his first MLB start since August 13, Brandon McCarthy made his longest appearance since July 22. Retiring the first six batters he faced on 25 pitches with four strikeouts, McCarthy then allowed two runs in the third inning, but recovered to face the minimum in the fourth and fifth innings.

For the day, McCarthy threw 79 pitches in 5 1/3 innings with six strikeouts, and notably walked only one. It was his three consecutive starts walking a career-high five in early August that signaled his need to return to the disabled list.

Following a Howie Kendrick single and Justin Turner double to begin the third, the Dodgers cut the Rockies’ lead in half on Yasiel Puig’s sacrifice fly, but couldn’t convert any of their other eight baserunners in the first six innings into runs.

After Turner singled in the seventh, however, Corey Seager ripped a shot down the right-field line — his team-leading fifth triple — and suddenly the Dodgers were tied, at home, with a direct look at the promised land. Then came the final at-bat …

David Dahl’s ninth-inning home run off Kenley Jansen looked to deny the Dodgers their opportunity to win their way into the NL West title. The immediate consolation, as Dahl’s drive sailed over the fence in right-center, was that San Diego took a 4-3 lead over San Francisco in the bottom of the seventh, extending the possibility of a home clinch.

But with two out in the bottom of the ninth, Seager drilled a 112 mph shot off Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino (aiming to rebound from his five-run, ninth-inning meltdown August 31 against the Dodgers) to tie the game again.

Joc Pederson, batting for Yasiel Puig, walked against Boone Logan. Gonzalez came to the plate and hit a solid opposite-field drive but a can of corn nonetheless, and we would play on.

With two out in the bottom of the 10th, Culberson, who spent much of the season in the minors, no-doubted an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left, and the celebration began for the Dodgers — bot thanks to the Giants, but thanks to themselves.

Chris Taylor has been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City, bringing the Dodgers’ active roster to 39 players with the activation of tonight’s starter, Scott Kazmir, from the disabled list.

Dave Roberts also said today that Brandon McCarthy would be activated from the disabled list before the season ends, perhaps as soon as this weekend — at which point the Dodgers will have an unprecedented 40 actually active players.

Taylor has a .271 on-base percentage and .382 slugging percentage in 59 plate appearances for the Dodgers this year, highlighted by the July 15 game in which he doubled, tripled, hit a grand slam and drove in six runs.

In Triple-A this year, Taylor had a .397 OBP while slugging .474 for Tacoma in the Mariners organization and the Dodgers’ team in Oklahoma City.

Though it’s not as dramatic as it was in July and August, when seemingly every start was up for grabs, the Dodgers did have some small tweaks and tidbits to share this afternoon about their starting pitching.

Brock Stewart will make Saturday’s start at Arizona instead of previously announced Bud Norris, according to Dave Roberts, who said Stewart was getting the nod based on “the way he’s thrown” in his recent outings. Norris will remain available out of the bullpen.

Kazmir, whom Dave Roberts today said was potentially on track to pitch for the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium next week, faced seven batters for Oklahoma City in its opening playoff game against Nashville. Two walked, two were hit by pitches, and one — Renato Nunez — hit a three-run home run.

Kazmir then left with the trainer before the inning was over, and was said to be heading back to Los Angeles for evaluation, as Jack Baer of MLB.com wrote.

The Dodgers’ official roster move today was to make Jose De Leon their 31st player on the active roster and their first to take the mound today against San Diego.

But they also signaled a bigger roster move to come later this week. According to Dave Roberts, Los Angeles plan to send National League Cy Young Award candidate Clayton Kershaw to the mound Friday at Miami for the start of the Dodgers’ 10-game road trip.

If he resumes his big-league campaign Friday and works regularly on four days’ rest, Kershaw would theoretically have five regular-season starts remaining: September 9 (at Marlins), September 14 (at New York Yankees), September 19 (vs. Giants), September 24 (vs. Rockies) and either September 29 (at Padres) or September 30 (on five days’ rest at Giants).

Obviously, that’s just on paper — there’s a lot of road between now and the end of the month.

The parallel universe that is the Dodgers’ disabled list came to life at Dodger Stadium today.

As the active roster prepared for its game tonight at Colorado, six Dodger pitchers — Clayton Kershaw, Brett Anderson, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Alex Wood — strode the field today to continue their rehabilitation from injuries.

Four of them — Kershaw, Anderson, Kazmir and McCarthy — took turns throwing simulated innings off the mound, to a group of imported Dodger minor-leaguers whose seasons have ended.

Kershaw, of course, was the headliner, throwing 35 pitches with high intensity in two innings. He wasn’t ready to pronounce any verdict — “Last time I came out of this OK, got home and felt terrible,” he said — though Andrew Friedman told reporters in Colorado that Kershaw’s next step would be a minor-league rehab game.

“Tomorrow’s probably a better time to answer,” Kershaw said. “As of this second, I feel OK.”

As expected, Brandon McCarthy has been placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Dodgers with right hip stiffness. Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reported on the likelihood of this Saturday.

Less expected is the news that reliever Josh Ravin will be joining McCarthy on the DL, because of right triceps soreness. Ravin walked two, threw a wild pitch and struck out one in 2/3 of an inning Saturday.

Those moves make room for the activation of Brett Anderson from the 60-day disabled list for today’s start, as well as the recall of Brock Stewart from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

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